Ridley Scott knew there was water on Mars two months ago

But it was too late for the director to incorporate the discovery into The Martian, his film starring Matt Damon stranded on the red planet

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Ridley Scott pictured at the premiere of The Martian with his wife, Giannina FacioCredit:
EPA/Andy Rain

Telegraph Film29 September 2015 • 11:47am

There was at least one person who was not surprised by Nasa's announcement yesterday that flowing water had been discovered on Mars: Ridley Scott.

"I knew that months ago," the director told Yahoo Movies, when asked about the news. Indeed, Scott went as far as to say that his contact with Nasa scientists, occasioned by research for The Martian, his new film set on the red planet, may have inspired them to investigate the situation there more seriously.

"When I first talked to Nasa, we got into all kinds of stuff," he said, "and I said, ‘So I know you’ve got [these] massive glaciers.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that the massive white thing that gets covered with dust, we think that’s ice.' And I said, 'Wow! Does that mean there was an ocean?’ Are we right now what Mars was 750 million years ago?’ And they went, ‘Uh, good question.’

"So they want to go up there and find out."

A 2008 image of three craters on Mars containing concealed glaciers detected by radarCredit:
HO/AFP/Getty Images

Scott said that although he knew about the discovery two months before the general public, it was far too late to amend the film. The Martian, based on the bestselling novel by Andy Weir, stars Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars, using his wits to survive on the hostile planet.

Had Scott known earlier, he told the New York Times, Matt Damon's character would have “found the edge of a glacier, definitely. It would be fascinating. But then I would’ve lost a great sequence. He has to make water, and the steaming device, and put up the plastic tents, which creates the humidity, which grows the plants, which is the most basic form of irrigation. They still do it in Spain that way.”